Ticketmaster will sell tickets directly on Facebook by the end of April

Ticketing giant Ticketmaster will begin selling tickets directly through Facebook by the end of April. The company joins the model of many businesses who have chosen to host core services within the social media platform. The majority of these companies, online commerce enterprises and web publishers, have decided to go direct through Facebook after observing customers spending less time on their websites and more on mobile apps like Facebook, which is usually the most trafficked destination. 84% of all time spent on non-native apps on mobile devices is within only five apps.

Facebook will collect a fee from Ticketmaster when someone purchases a ticket through Facebook. Even though the purchase will be hosted on the social media site, tickets still must be “claimed” via Ticketmaster’s app or site. The buy-on-Facebook feature will initially be limited to a select number of general-admission events, but pending the success of the initial phase, purchasing options may be expanded in the future.

Dan Armstrong, VP and GM of distributed commerce at Ticketmaster, explained to BuzzFeed News in an interview that “by putting the ability to buy tickets directly within Facebook we hope that we’re going to provide a more seamless purchase experience and sell more tickets.”

Thus far, Facebook’s partnerships with other businesses has fallen within two main areas. The app’s quick-loading Instant Articles product hosts publisher content, and online shops have been built into designated pages. With the forthcoming partnership with Ticketmaster, Facebook is extending its reach into event ticketing for the first time in its main app.

Facebook Messenger users already have the ability to purchase tickets through the experimental virtual assistant M, and have images of the ticket sent on request before the event. Adding Ticketmaster support to the feature, or a standalone Ticketmaster chat account may seem like the obvious next step, but Facebook’s Product Partnerships team’s Jon Park says no such plans are in the works. “I think it’s something that we’d be interested in exploring,” he continued, but Facebook hasn’t indicated at this point the likelihood of such a development.